Page 74 of Unforgivable Ties

I didn’t say anything as I filled the grave in, instead choosing to enjoy the absolute terror on his face.

As I finished up, a light layer of snow had just began to fall. Good. The asshole could stay even further from the surface where people dwelled.

Then I went into the cabin and removed all signs that there was a struggle. To management, it would just look like an unreliable seasonal hire.

Finally, I made my way back to mine and Stephanie’s room. After a hard night’s work, I was ready to fall asleep with her in my arms.

“Damn, really was a massacre last night, huh?” Dino said as he stacked the cooler of organs on top of one another. The tall man sighed and picked up another cooler. “At least it was mostly the Bratva’s men.”

I grunted in response. Dino was a great worker, but I couldn’t stand how much he could talk. But his charisma was beneficial to us—he could sneak in places and charm the pants off people, getting intel that my friends and I could never extract.

“Stephanie told me about your birthday trip,” he said, ignoring that I clearly didn’t want to engage in conversation. “Wild what happened.”

“How much did she tell you?” I said, whipping around to face him.

“That you were great at snowboarding, the lodge had delicious food,” he paused and raised an eyebrow at me. “And that she was kidnapped and almost died.”

“You keep quiet about that,” I hissed, curling my fingers around a cooler. “That’s private.”

Dino shrugged his shoulders. “The secret’s safe with me,” he replied with a wink. His nonchalant attitude irked me. I had no patience for humor in the face of danger and death.

“But,” he continued, pushing his brown curly hair out of the way. “There was no way you let him live. Stephanie said you just beat the shit out of him and left, but I call bullshit.”

I was silent for a long moment, my back to him as I considered what was best to say. I had no plans to confirm or deny hissuspicion, but he didn’t seem like the type prone to letting things go.

Finally, I said, “Believe what you want.”

Dino let out a knowing chuckle, his laugh echoing in the cool, tiled room. “That’s what I thought,” he replied, his tone smug. I gritted my teeth and went back to stacking the coolers.

“So soft for her you’d kill someone, eh?” Cesare said, walking up to inspect the coolers.

Fuck. I had been so frustrated with Dino that I hadn’t even heard Cesare enter the loading docks.

“Well, it’s actually the second—” Dino started, but I interrupted him.

“Can we just stay on task? I have no idea why you’re both so interested in my personal life when we have a job to do,” I shot back. My tone was sharp enough to warn Cesare to back off.

Fortunately, the old man backed off. He was one of the few men who could challenge my orders—he had worked for the Moretti family for years—but he was more interested in business today.

“The Surgeon is increasing the amount we get paid per organ,” he said, marking his clipboard as he inspected each cooler. “There must be some type of shortage. I don’t know if he’s having trouble finding live bodies, but either way, we’re making more money.”

“We already make plenty of money,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “What does it matter?”

“There’s always more money to be made,” he said simply, marking off the final cooler.

We heard the faint sounds of a van pulling around the side of the warehouse, the familiar grumble of the engine unmistakable. Cesare glanced over his shoulder as if to confirm before returning his attention to the clipboard.

A black van backed into the loading dock, its heavy tires grinding on the concrete floor and echoing ominously through the warehouse. The van’s front doors swung open, two men in dark clothing jumping out. They wore gloves and masks and did not even greet us as they loaded the coolers into the back of the vehicle.

This was one of the few times Dino knew to keep his mouth shut. He watched the men load the coolers, checking each one off a list as they put them in the back.

After everything had been loaded and accounted for, one walked up to me and passed me a briefcase that was full of cash. I popped the lid open to confirm the contents, and after a quick visual inspection, it looked like all the money was there. The Surgeon was a trusted partner, and had never shorted us, so I chose not to count each bill in front of the men.

The two men nodded at the three of us before getting back in the van and driving away. The van disappeared around a corner, and the eerie echo of silence filled the warehouse once again.

“They’re always so easy to work with,” Cesare commented.

“So quiet, though,” Dino complained, leaning against the warehouse wall.

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